Just a day after Iowa basketball head coach Fran McCaffery said they are done adding to the 2019 team, the Hawks extended an offer to small forward Lok Wur.
If you haven’t heard of Lok Wur, don’t worry, most people hadn’t until recently when Wur declared that he was academically eligible to play major college basketball this season. Since then, Wur’s recruiting has blown up as teams look to add one of the few remaining unsigned 2019 players to their team before the 2019 season. For a program like the Iowa basketball team, the arrival of this incredibly talented player couldn’t have come at a better time.
With three unexpected departures this offseason, the Iowa basketball team has an open scholarship on the table, and yesterday they used it to extend an offer to the 6’9” Nebraska prospect.
Wur is an intriguing prospect given his size and his label as a guard (we will get to that more in a second), and with Iowa’s seemingly lack of depth in the backcourt, it’s a match made in heaven.
The Iowa basketball team is gearing up to make another run to the NCAA Tournament, and adding another long, lanky, athletic, and versatile player can only strengthen their team.
More importantly, it seems like Wur’s college selection criteria aligns pretty well with the Iowa basketball program.
An article from Hoops Report quoted Wur saying this:
"I’m looking for a school that is fast pace, where I can handle the ball and use my versatility to impact the game; more than just scoring."
If that doesn’t align with an Iowa basketball team that relentlessly pushes the ball, but needs help on the rebounding and defensive side of the ball, then I don’t know what does.
One thing I will caution against though is getting too excited about the “guard” title. Even when watching Wur’s highlights, while impressed by his athleticism, I wasn’t floored his by his ball handling skills. They weren’t bad, but he doesn’t come close to the other guards on Iowa’s roster in terms of that. However, I am just being picky at this point, After all, he’s just a high schooler and is immensely talented.
However, if he were to play small forward or gain a bit more weight (he is currently just 180 pounds) and play power forward, he could be a great mismatch and an athletic nightmare from that spot against unathletic bigs.
Now, the Iowa basketball team just plays the waiting game, which according to Wur, should only last 2-3 weeks.
If Fran McCaffery can land Wur after pulling in graduate transfer Bakari Evelyn, it may begin to quiet some of the concerns coming out of this tumultuous 2019 offseason.